WHAT IS CRYPTOCURRENCY?

WHAT IS CRYPTOCURRENCY?

Cryptocurrencies, or virtual currencies, are digital means of exchange created and used by private individuals or groups. Because most cryptocurrencies aren’t regulated by national governments, they’re considered alternative currencies mediums of financial exchange that exist outside the bounds of state monetary policy.

Bitcoin is the preeminent cryptocurrency and first to be used widely. However, hundreds of cryptocurrencies exist, and more spring into being every month.

Cryptocurrencies use cryptographic protocols, or extremely complex code systems that encrypt sensitive data transfers, to secure their units of exchange. Cryptocurrency developers build these protocols on advanced mathematics and Computer engineering principles that render them Virtually Impossible to break, and thus to duplicate or counterfeit the protected currencies. These protocols also mask the identities of cryptocurrency users, making transactions and fund flows difficult to attribute to specific individuals or groups.

Cryptocurrencies are also marked by decentralized control. Cryptocurrencies’ supply and value are controlled by the activities of their users and highly complex protocols built into their governing codes, not the conscious decisions of central banks or other regulatory authorities. In particular, the activities of miners cryptocurrency users who leverage vast amounts of computing power to record transactions, receiving newly created cryptocurrency units and transaction fees paid by other users in return are critical to currencies’ stability and smooth function.

Importantly, cryptocurrencies can be exchanged for fiat currencies in special online markets, meaning each has a variable exchange rate with major world currencies (such as the US. dollar, British pound, European euro, and Japanese yen). Cryptocurrency exchanges are somewhat vulnerable to hacking and represent the most common venue for digital currency theft.

Most, but not all, cryptocurrencies are characterized by finite supply. Their source codes contain instructions outlining the precise number of units that can and will ever exist. Over time, it becomes more difficult for miners to produce cryptocurrency units, until the upper limit is reached and new currency ceases to be minted altogether. Cryptocurrencies’ finite supply makes them inherently deflationary, more akin to gold and other precious metals of which there are finite supplies than fiat currencies, which central banks can, in theory, produce unlimited supplies of.

Due to their political independence and essentially impenetrable data security, cryptocurrency users enjoy benefits not available to users of traditional fiat currencies, such as the US. dollar, and the financial systems that those currencies support. For instance, whereas a government can easily freeze or even seize a bank account located in its jurisdiction, it’s very difficult for it to do the same with funds held in cryptocurrency even if the holder is a citizen or legal resident.